Janhit Mein Jaari is the latest addition to the cinema of unmentionables, in which broad humour is used to deliver prescriptive messaging about taboo subjects (erectile dysfunction in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, fertility clinics in Khandaani Shafakhana). Janhit Mein Jaari, about the importance of condoms, itself follows the similarly themed direct-to-streamer Helmet (2019).
If Helmet’s hero went from petty thief to contraceptive marketing maven, Janhit Mein Jaari’s heroine is transformed from average Chanderi resident to local crusader. Frequently threatened with marriage by her parents, Manokamna (Nushrratt Bharuccha) takes the only job available – selling Little Umbrella condoms. Perhaps the affability of the company’s owner (Brijendra Kala) has something to do with Manokamna’s growing comfort with her unusual choice.
Manokamna’s childhood friend Devi Prasad (Paritosh Tripathi) pines for her, but she chooses Ramlila performer Manoranjan (Anud Singh Dhaka). Correctly guessing that his joint family, led by the stern Kewal Prajapati (Vijay Raaz), will go radioactive when they find out just how his wife earns her salary, Manorajan pretends that Manokamna actually works for a brand on umbrellas.
The charade is riotously entertaining while it lasts for Manokamna – and the movie. Directed by Jai Basantu Singh and written by Comedy Circus veteran Raaj Shaandilyaa, Janhit Mein Jaari unfolds like a sitcom in which it is hoped that the set-up is attractive enough to forgive the latter-section collapse.
Wacky gags and good-natured skewering are smoothly rolled out until the makers remember that too much fun is being had in a film whose title means “issued in the public interest”. Janhit Mein Jaari grinds to a halt at the exact moment when Manokamna decides to become a goody two shoes.
Unable to normalise Manokamna’s line of work without tacking a social cause onto it, the film draws a questionable equivalence between using condoms and preventing abortion. Manokamna’s critique of condom advertising, which has emphasised sexual pleasure over birth control, is actually the best way to kill the product rather than make it sell faster.
Janhit Mein Jaari lives up to the cleverness of its title until it doesn’t. The absurdity always rings truer than the preaching. Before Manokamna discovers her inner activist, the film lines up a bunch of endearingly crackpot characters.
Nushrratt Bharuccha ably steers the film over a needlessly stretched 146 minutes. Sapna Sand hilariously plays Manokamna’s easily overwrought mother, who need the slightest excuse to heave her chest and behave as if the world is coming to an end.
Paritosh Tripathi is excellent as Devi Prasad, who has loved Manokamna forever but gamely steps out of the way when she chooses Manoranjan. In a more radical film, Devi Prasad might have had a role to play when the Manokamna-Manorajan coupling teeters, but he has to be content with piping up from the sidelines.